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Barton Vale House inEnfield, South Australia is the headquarters of the Smith family's diverse activities. It is also one of the grandest and most historic mansions left in the city of Adelaide, restored to its former glory after almost passing into ruin.
Built by eminent pastoralist Edmund Bowman between 1850 and 1852, it is a grand Early Victorian mansion in the Gothic style, built of locall... Read more

Barton Vale House inEnfield, South Australia is the headquarters of the Smith family's diverse activities. It is also one of the grandest and most historic mansions left in the city of Adelaide, restored to its former glory after almost passing into ruin.
Built by eminent pastoralist Edmund Bowman between 1850 and 1852, it is a grand Early Victorian mansion in the Gothic style, built of locally quarried rendered limestone. Bowman's son, Edmond Jr, built Martindale Hall at Mintaro in the Georgian style.
Barton Vale House is a late example of limestone construction, reflecting the fact that Edmund Bowman was attempting to build the grand house economically, taking advantage of inexpensive local materials.
Edmund Bowman died relatively young in 1866, and his wife remarried, with her new husband, William Brooks, undertaking a major refurbishing of Barton Vale in 1879-80. The house was opened to a tour of architects and builders in 1881, and the detailed description published in "The Advertiser" has been used by the Smiths to restore rooms to their original use.
Photographs of Barton Vale House from the turn of the century show an interior of Victorian opulence and clutter, with homely touches including family pets.
When the immediate family died out in 1922, the contents of Barton Vale were auctioned over several days, and the house was bought by the Salvation Army for use as a "Home for Wayward Girls". It passed to the State Remand system in 1947, being renamed Vaughan House, the name by which most South Australians recognise Barton Vale.
By the late 1980s Barton Vale was almost derelict and structurally unsound. The huge stone tower had combined with silting and subsidence at the rear of the house to cause severe cracking, and the tower was removed in 1944 to reduce the damage.
Inside, most of the rooms were deserted and decayed. Graffiti was common, and vines had grown through broken windows to climb up two storeys inside.
After a determined campaign by the Enfield Historical Society against much bureaucratic indifference, the SA Government allocated funds to restore BartonVale in the late 1980s for use as government offices. Read less